🌸April showers bring Money flowers 🌸
Hi friends,
Welcome to Better Have My Money, my Monday night newsletter about stocks for clueless newbies aka me, who are trying to figure out the world of investing in stocks. Better Have My Money is a gif-filled rundown of the stock market, from why you need to get your f-ck layoffs fund organized to figuring out which stocks spark joy for you.
I despise when a newsletter opens with an apology because realistically I forgot even subscribing to it and I have no idea if it's written daily/monthly/based on the author's feelings, let alone if it's late. So no apologies here (I am not getting paid to write this!) but I do have a list of excuses of where I've been for the last.... two months.Â
First it was a Miami weekend jaunt, then President's Day, then I was busy sipping iced lattes in the Australian summer for three weeks (I lugged my computer there, positive I would write a newsletter), then I got sick because bodies hate changing seasons. Last week I went on a reporting trip to Parkland, Florida, to cover mental health services after the devastating suicides.Â
And the more time that went on, the more convinced I was that Better Have My Money had to come BACK with some special thing. Maybe a full relaunch of the newsletter, ditch the gifs, get a fancy logo? Maybe I could write a cool "intro to investing" to post on the website I paid $50 for a year ago —and just renewed — to answer all those emails that say "so how do I get started"? (Ahem, until I do that, try my first newsletter.)
Do you know what happened to my stocks while I was just faffing about wondering what I should write about for my first newsletter in two months?
They just kept growing. Slowly growing.Â
Since early Feb, I'm up 4% overall.
OK so my weed shares dropped 58% and I didn't take my own advice in the last newsletter to sell some of them while they were at an unsustainable level. But everything else, including the overall total, has risen. I did absolutely nothing to change this — I already owned these stocks and they just increased, thanks to an overall increase in the market.
iRobot increased 36%. Estee Lauder jumped 21%. PayPal is up 15%. Starbucks rose 12%. It's been a monster first quarter for stocks.
And it reminded me that really I don't need to do anything cause the most important thing I can ever do is just encourage you, if you're not already, to just get investing already. Preferably ethically etc etc but in this house we stan a money making queen and compound interest.Â
I know some readers already own stocks — and many don't! — but maybe earnings season, aka right now, is a good time for you to pounce. Maybe it's to start for the first time. Maybe it's to sign up for Acorns, the app that rounds up all your purchases and invests them into ETFs (if you use my sign up code to join, we both get $5). Maybe it's to buy more of a stock that has really worked for you already — or maybe it's a stock you are convinced is going to be a hot new pick.
Just do something, cause I promise, the only way to grow your money by sitting there doing sweet af is to have some investments. Think of it as spring cleaning your bank accounts. And when you've decided what to do — email me and tell me about it! Just hit reply.Â
Testimonials:
From my glorious colleague Yrbenka: "You're making the world a better place 1 broke millennial at a time, truly! Thanks for making stocks remotely interesting BC if it weren't for you I would not have a Robinhood account and would not be on track for early retirement and would not be able to update my day trader BF about stock trends, wouldn't know what an ETF is!" — Everyone plz channel this energy for the rest of April.
@krystalemalone: "@bhavemymoney Girl, where are you? We need our newsletter! I just found you through @gabydunn podcast and binged your archives. Love it and thank you! Hope you're doing alright! But seriously, come back" — Gaby Dunn also now has a book out!Â
This week/month, I suggest donating to Lifeline, which answered 2.2 million calls from people who were thinking about suicide, or had fears about someone who was. Saving lives is even better than saving money.
Cheers,
Amber Jamieson
Better Have My Money is on Twitter @bhavemymoney, so please tweet nice things (aka the link to our sign up page) and tag us. Forward this onto a friend who needs a spring money clean and tell them to subscribe.
As always, if you've got any questions about stocks, this is a shame free zone. Just reply and ask away.